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July 23, 2013

I made a Swimsuit!

I'm still there and sewing! I'm just behind with posting my projects...
I wanted to try to make a swimsuit since I got my serger last year, only to see if I could do it, and now I got infected with the swimsuit fever all around here in the sewing blogosphere, so I decided this was the right moment to try.

This is the result! I wanted to make it a bit retro style, with a skirt panel at the front, but in a modern swimsuit fabric. There is a great pattern for a swimsuit from Heather Lou of Closet Case Files, but I wanted mine without the ruffling at the front and back. So I used Burdastyle's Alison swimsuit pattern and drafted a matching skirt panel by myself. I also altered the leg openings to get more coverage. I don't like halter styles on me, so instead of tying the neckband behind my neck, I made them longer to form a cross on my back.

I finished the leg openings with chlorine resistant elastic, and also the hem of the skirt panel. When I tried the suit on, I felt that it was not sitting tight enough on the bust area, which I thought might be because I left off the back strap (there is one in the original Burdastyle design). I took the side seams in at the top, but that did not help a lot. Then, I ripped off the band that goes around the back and up the sides of the front and again to the back, reattached it with a bit more stretch, and also backed that seam with elastic. That made a huge difference! Now everything feels safely supported.

There are some obvious flaws, but they don't bother me too much. The side seam is pulled to the front where the front leg opening meets the side seam, and there is a fancy ruffling at my left bust cup - this is due to the bad pattern instructions, they don't tell you where to start with ruffling the bust insert, so I had to guess where, and I did a bit too much ruffling on this side (and I know I'll have to practice on my serger stitching).

The fabric was surprisingly easy to sew, even easier than some of the t-shirt jerseys I had already used before. It would be no big deal to make the whole thing only on a sewing machine (in fact, I "machine basted" all the seams with a zigzag stitch on my sewing machine before "really" sewing them with my serger. That made it easier to rip them when it was necessary).
To test the sewability of the swimsuit fabric first, I made a pair of swimming trunks for my husband first. (I love that fabric with the sharks on it!)

The on-road test of my swimsuit went well. I could swim with it, the straps didn't slide off my shoulder, and even a ride on the waterslide wasn't any problem. Next time, though, I think I would also add some elastic to the top of the bust cups, as they are being pulled down just a little bit while swimming. Adding elastic was really the most important thing to get it sitting nicely, at least for me!

17 comments:

Great job with your swimsuit! Definitely love the polka dots! I also experimented last year with making a swimsuit for the first time by using, and tweaking, the Alison pattern. Seeing yours is making me want to dig out the swimsuit fabric I've had stashed for at least a year and experiment with another one...and finish the tweaks on my first one I keep saying I'm going to do!

That look brilliant, great adjustments. I was just looking at the Alison pattern last night. Can I ask where you buy your fabric and elastic? As a fellow Zürcher (well along the lake anyhow) I haven't seen anything funky like your polka dots in any of the shops I've been to?

Thank you very much! I couldn't find any nice swimsuit fabrics in the Zurich area, so I ordered mine from the internet. I found mine here: http://thefabricfairy.com/fabrics/by-type/swimsuit/printed-swimsuit-fabric.htmlBut there is also a nice collection of swimsuit fabrics here: http://www.lowpricefabric.com/c-310-prints.aspxI bought the elastic at my local Bernina store, no problem with that (although they have it only in white and only in one width).

Love your suit! It's a perfect variation, as the ruching on the Bombshell isn't really as flattering on some people. I think your sleek take on it is very flattering and will bring more attention to the free (is it still free?) Allison pattern.

OMG your swimsuit is gorgeous !!! It fits beautifully and the polka dots are perfect! Now I want to make one too! I made a bombshell and while I like the ruching, it makes for a lot of fabric that takes forever to dry... I am determined to make a new suit for next year though and yours is truly inspiring! I was wondering how supportive is yours? It's an issue I have with my bombshell...

Thanks a lot! I find the suit not to be very supportive, I think comparable to the bombshell. There is also not a lot to be supported on my body ;-/But I found that adding elastics helped a lot, too, so to make it more supportive next time, I would try and add some elastic horizontally under the bust cups and at the top of the bust cups. It also helped putting elastic around the upper back edge and into the straps. Without it, the suit really felt like not sitting properly.